Underpinning this update is news coming out of Tokyo of a record premium price paid by two Japanese buyers for bulk Aluminum through the London Metal Exchange (LME) which is due to be shipped in the October-December Quarter by British-Australian mining giant Rio-Tinto Ltd. Sources close to the negotiations say that Rios offer of $420 per tonne beat other producers offer of between $435 and $460 from suppliers such as Alcoa.
This comes of the back of American Alcoa Inc’s April report that global aluminum demand will exceed production this year, putting an end to nine years of surplus supply of Aluminum driven by high Chinese production. Naturally this excess supply lowered global prices, which for an industry worth $90Billion dollars a year globally will see its impacts felt right throughout the global economic system.
Further driving this global market phenomenon is the closure of many smelters despite forecasts for global Aluminum consumption to increase by 7% throughout the year 2014, with a lot of this stemming from Aerospace and automobile industries. The closure of smelters outside of China, in particular Japan, USA and Europe.
The properties that make aluminum a metal so useful are its lightness, corrosion resistance, non-magnetic, non-toxic, good reflector of light waterproof and odorless, very ductile and also cheap comparing to other alloy.
As a world leader, Shanghai Metal Corporation (SMC) offers Aluminum in various type and size with offices and subsidiaries located throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas. More information on aluminum can be found on our website here. Be sure to join the conversation in our LinkedIn group, Facebook, Twitter & Tumblr. You can also scan the QR code below with your smart device to connect with us on these platforms.
Dominick F.//SMC Editor
Sources; Reuters; Bloomberg; Wikipedia; Yahoo! Finance; Cedar Recycling
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